Ananya Sahdev

AR3596

This research takes on the lively tangle that is Rem Koolhaas - the architect-theorist, provocateur, and occasional oracle of architectural ambiguity. Positioned somewhere between the drawing board and the essay page, Koolhaas operates in a territory where theoretical musings and built forms don’t merely coexist but tussle, contradict, and occasionally high-five. The study unpacks this interplay, asking whether Koolhaas’s writings, ranging from cryptic manifestos to polemics with the flair of performance art, are the compass guiding his practice, an after-the-fact justification of it, or simply a parallel theatre where ideals clash with budget cuts, planning permissions, and concrete reality.